At the back of my mind, I thought Claudia might be bored at home once both girls were in school but she keeps herself more than busy. On a farm, there’s always something to do.

Trent and Megan are still fairly active, especially for their age, but Claudia has taken on the bulk of the work.

Of course, Claudia isn’t home as much anyway these days, with Kirby Market to run.

Trent still goes down with her sometimes, to help out with sales or stocking.

I think he likes the opportunity to talk to the customers more than anything.

Claudia works the register, which she’s not the greatest at, by her own admission.

But Kirby Market won last year’s Best of the Best award, so she must be doing something right. The reviewer was very impressed.

Taking over the market was something Claudia really wanted to do but it doesn’t mean it’s been easy for her. She’s never had the experience of working outside the home and then coming home to two children and it’s been a bit of an adjustment for her.

So I decided to get her out of the house for a few date nights, just so she could recharge.

We’re both totally dedicated to Daphne and Iris but a little break is healthy for everyone.

The girls have a ball while we’re gone and Trent and Megan love it, so everyone wins. Megan always makes them all a special dessert, which is only an occasional treat for the girls.

They have also have campouts in the yard with Trent. It’s something he used to do with Declan and Caitlin when they were younger and now he does it with Daphne, Iris and Keira.

I think a little time away from home now and then helped Claudia, as little a thing as it was.

Claudia would start out a little wound up but we’d always be laughing by the end of it.

Claudia is much less stressed now but we're still doing the date nights, just because we had so much fun with them.

To top it off, Trent and Megan always have the kids asleep by the time we get home, so there's never anything else to do but relax.

I work days currently, which is what lets me actually take my poor wife out to dinner now. It means an early morning but I’m often home even before Claudia is.

It feels like I hardly see Claudia and the girls when I’m on night shift, so things are good right now.

It also keeps Megan happy. She never actually said anything while I was doing it but I get a strong impression she’s not thrilled that my job requires me to work at night sometimes.

What can I do? Fires don’t wait for daylight, so there has to be someone ready at the station.

Saturday is one of my days off, so we planned a little birthday party for Daphne that day. Well, it was meant to be little. It was going to be family only, since Daphne’s cousin Keira is her best friend anyway.

But then she begged to invite the rest of her grade, because she was worried they’d get their feelings hurt if they were left out. Seeing 10 is a milestone birthday, we agreed and she invited several other kids.

Then we were big softies and let Iris invite just one of her friends and it sort of just went from there. We ended up with a much bigger party than we were planning on.It could have been even bigger but we were missing Rebecca and Nathan, as well as Declan and Caitlin.

It was hectic with that many kids running around but they all had a lot of fun too.

Felix Lane has a bit of a reputation at school for being kind of a handful but he was on his best behaviour at the party.

Maybe the others were a good influence on him! He didn't act the way we expected at all, given the stories Daphne has shared from school.

Megan made Daphne a chocolate cake, by special request of the birthday girl.

I don’t think anyone was more enthusiastic about celebrating than Iris!

I was very keen to have kids close together in age and I’m glad we did it. The girls are like each other's biggest fans and they're very tight.

Iris really looks up to Daphne and Daphne is an excellent big sister.

I can’t believe she’s in the double digits now. I still remember the day she was born so clearly.

Daphne is in Grade 5 this year and Finn’s told us that she’s already doing really well.

This is her second last year of primary school, so it's an important time for Daphne.

Iris is in my sister’s class for the second year in a row and we’re getting pretty good reviews on that front too.

She’s polite, she doesn’t cause trouble and she’s just about the sweetest kid you could meet. That’s exactly what we see from her at home, so that wasn’t much of a surprise.

However, it’s only been a week and a half and she already has a little homework backlog going.

She’d just much rather play games on the computer than work on her spelling.

We’re trying not to be too hard on her, because she’s still so young.

At the same time though, we’re not letting her get out of doing it either. Homework’s not going away any time soon, so we don’t want her to fall into bad habits with it.

She’s promised that she’s going to try her best and stay off the computer until her homework is finished from now on. Let's hope she can stick to it!

Notes:

Title is from Charge by Splendid.

It was also Trent's birthday this month but I am so terrible at doing birthday celebrations that I completely forgot to mention it! So happy birthday to Trent as well. ;)

Iris tends to start her homework and then not finish it, because she runs out to hug Jacob when he gets home from work. There's a reason I gave her the Affectionate trait! So I'm going to have to watch her closely and make sure she gets it done. She rolls the want to do homework about half the time, so I think she's motivated enough.

Rebecca and Nathan are on their honeymoon, which you will see a little of in the next update. I'm sure I had a reason to schedule their update so close to their wedding but I have no clue what it was now. Oh well. That's who you'll see next, in any event!

Claudia's aspiration was very low green for this entire session, which was what Jacob's date nights were an attempt to fix! Dates always get my sims into Gold or Platinum. People say Pleasure sims are easy to keep happy but with my experience with Claudia, I'd have to disagree. She rolls a lot of wants that give only 500 aspiration, so it takes a long time to get her mood up there. Give me a Knowledge sim any day - they're way easier to keep happy!

14 comments:

Such a sweet family and I'm not surprised that she's stressed, her parents are older so she's doing more manual labor at the farm, plus running the family business and being a wife and mother on top of that. Stress city!

Stress city is right! Claudia has a lot on her plate. The date with Jacob brought her aspiration right up though and I didn't have much trouble keeping it up after that, which I'm taking as a sign that she's coping better with the change now. Definitely a change from being a stay-at-home mum with both kids in school though!

I like the birthdayparty! Another real thing you've added!I always forget about birthdays! I check them before I start playing, and then I somehow forget about them! Or I just forget to check them at all....

Claudia seems to be doing things very well, but it can be stressfull at times. And I can imagine those datenights are a welcome distraction, and an excelent thing to reload.

I just redid my next round's schedule, and when looking at the previous one I did, I couldn't figure out why I put certain families in certain months! I'm pretty sure that if I check it again now, that I'll have the same problem all over again :)

I often forget birthdays too but I've been making an effort to check each month and then make a note of it in my play schedule (my personal one, not the one on the blog). That way, if I get around to the session and I want to do a birthday, I can. There will actually be two birthdays for my college kids this time around, though I'm not sure if I'll celebrate both.

Claudia is very busy right now but I think this job will really suit her, in the end. Definitely better than politics, anyway! That was definitely not her!

I try to just stick to my schedule, however weird it may look by the time I get around to it. Makes things less confusing! I ended up skipping a family entirely last time I did too much rearranging and I don't want to do it again. ;)

Daphne and Iris are too cute :) I just love how close they're, even though they're three years apart. By 10, I would think she wouldn't want to be bothered by a 7 year old, but it's nice to see them get along.

Is running the family produce store Claudia's full-time job, or does she work elsewhere? I think I read somewhere that your sims may not run their business as their actual career, but I maybe mistaken.

In the picture with the campfire, who's the blonde hair little girl?

I like the birthday party for Daphne. The grandparents must really enjoy kids because that's a lot in the yard. But it seems perfectly spacious to host a birthday party.

Heh, that's about when the fighting ramps up with siblings but Daphne and Iris have never really fought at all. I've had other siblings who tend to use the "Torment" interaction a lot (the Lane kids come to mind) but these girls are sweet.

My sims do often have a regular job in addition to running a business but Claudia doesn't. Running the business, on top of keeping up with the gardening, is more than enough to keep her busy!

The blonde girl at the campfire with Daphne and Iris is Keira, their cousin. I think I said so in the text but I'll have to check and make sure. But Keira is Declan and Caitlin's younger sister and also Daphne's best friend. :)

Most of the yard is taken up by garden plots and apple trees but they have a lot of space anyway - it's a big yard. Trent and Megan are both Family sims, so they're pretty into the whole grandparent thing! They don't mind. ;)

Very sweet birthday party, I adore Daphne, she's such a doll, and little Iris with Jacob in those last photos, what a cutie! I love that she has the affectionate trait, totally fits. The only time I remember birthdays is when they are monumental ones like Bekah's 40th, I made a mention. But I don't always remember to even put it in, so I totally get forgetting Trent! I do so wish these two had another baby! I do like that they have two, but the girls are SO cute!

It was great seeing the farmer's market. Trent is lucky that Claudia has always wanted to take that over for him. I dread when Myra does, I don't have anyone to take it over, not in the London family anyway. The date night was great too, and what a clever idea on using dates to bring up aspirations! I've had a few aspirations pretty low but most were all teens lately, wanting things they were way too young for like college. I adore this family!!

I really love Daphne too and Iris has such a hilarious cartoonish face. They're both really sweet girls. I don't remember ANY birthdays on my own. I always have to look them up and I'll observe them if I feel like it. I think I had a birthday party for Steve when he turned 43 or some non-monumental birthday like that. Just 'cos I wanted to!

I do kind of wish Claudia and Jacob had a third too but it's very doubtful I'll let them. Daphne and Iris are sharing a room as it is and there's really no place to put another baby! Plus, Iris would be 9 by the time they had another one, so that would kind of fly in the face of Jacob's desire to have his kids close together, which he's fairly adamant about. He and his sister are 18 years apart, so he's never had that sibling relationship. Neither of them have rolled a baby want. Which is interesting, considering how common they seem in this hood, lol!

Oh, that's a bummer about Myra and her market! I would probably do what I'm doing with Tate and his restaurant eventually and have a family member own it but just hire a manager to run it. At least until maybe a future sim is interested. With Tate's, the restaurant will probably go to Grace when she's old enough, if she wants it. She's a Cuisine sim.

Aww, that's so cute! I was thinking about doing a birthday party too, but I said screw it, LOL. I'm still trying to get back into the groove of playing. I love those girls, and Daphne is totaly my favorite. Can't believe she might be a teen by the next time I see her.

Ha, I know that screw it feeling! I still feel like I'm trying to get back into the groove at times. There's a lot of things I would normally be doing but I'll forget about them until after I'm finished, or I don't have the right lot or CC. One day!

Jacob and Claudia made some seriously adorable kids! You'll likely see Daphne one more time as a kid, in Keira's update but after that, yep, she'll definitely be a teen next round! Crazy!

Loved the kid birthday party! I really wish that was a specific option for a party--especially in TS3. The kids could do silly/goofy actions autonomously and whatnot. Such fun! Kid parties are a LOT different than adult ones. Could you imagine if they could be themed?!

Your updates with businesses/etc always make me miss OFB. I honestly never thought I would, but I seriously miss it. Ahhh, the simplicity of a clock that only changes when you're on your home lot... can't have it all, I guess. ;)